Everyone has a story (or twenty) to share. VAMP (Visual/Audio Monologue Performance) is a monthly contest, held here in San Diego, where dozens of writers submit true stories that have happened in their lives, based on a theme-of-the-month. A panel of seasoned participants read all the stories, submitted anonymously, and rate them for the producing team. The top seven (or sometimes eight) are selected to be feature for a live reading at the Whistle Stop Bar in South Park, where typically 70-125 people come to hear the readings.
The seven writers get together and critique each other’s writing to help each author improve the work. THEN a writing coach meets with the author to boost it further. THEN a performance coach works with each writer to help make it sound good aloud. Finally, each writer submits a series of photos to go with the writing to enhance the visual experience of the audience. The result is monthly magic in storytelling!
Each episode become part of the “VAMP Storytelling Podcast” which I listen to every time I have to miss a live VAMP, but it’s not quite the same; missing the visuals takes away a lot and there’s the energy in the room. But at least I get to hear those stories and re-listen to great ones from the past few years.
Now that you know what VAMP (produced by SoSayWeAll) is, I’m proud to say that over the last five years, I’ve had several stories selected and performed there. Below you’ll find a few of those performances as filmed.
SoSayWeAll also produces a shorter story showcase called “Long Story Short” and a six minute showing from that (“The New York Birthday Song”) is in the list as well.
Oct 2017: Teeth (rated PG)
August 2024: An Atypical Subbing Day (rated PG-13 for violent references)
June 2025: The New York Birthday Song (rated G)
Recommended that you turn on Closed Captions for this one as the audience laughs over a little of my fast talking as I try to stay in the time limit
Thanks for checking out my VAMP and LongStoryShort performances.
One more fun video to share, below.
For those who don’t know, in 2000, I developed a passion for Photoshop editing. At first, I just made people look better in photos, but that grew into:
- photo restoration (stained, scraped, torn, faded…)
- photo alteration (adding or removing people, making someone smile who didn’t, changing clothes or backgrounds
- colorization (making those black-and-white shots come to life again.
Enjoy this little video below that shows what can be done to make the photos you love look the way you want.
To see more recent work or inquire about working on a photo of yours (or creating an amazing gift for someone),
visit www.FreshenYourPhoto.com.
Copyright 2024, Milo Shapiro.